


Braids and How They Bind Us Together

by Lily_pad13



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Hair, Hair Braiding, High School, Not a lot of angst, Older Sister, Open Ending, art class, good friend, little sister - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:09:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24014986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_pad13/pseuds/Lily_pad13
Summary: Olivia is the closest thing to a mother her little sister has since her mom died years ago. Therefore, Olivia does everything in her power to make sure that Lilith has as close to a normal childhood as she did when their mother was still alive. So, when a newish trend come around their town Olivia does when she can to make sure that Lilith is included. That’s all she expected just some hair lessons but she ended up with something more… Or shall I say someone..?
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Original Male Character/Original Male Character





	Braids and How They Bind Us Together

**Author's Note:**

> I had this rolling around in my head and if anyone doubts the realisticness of the story just know that I have spent months trying to learn how to braid and I still can't (sigh). Please let me know if you like it by commenting! It's really nothing crazy just a little fluff to make your day more fluffy... XD

“Olivia you’re hurting my head!” Lilith complained, her small hands tentatively massaging her abused scalp.

I’m sorry Lilith but, you know that I’m not good at braiding hair when I was your age ponytails were all I wore since they were super easy to do,” I apologized my voice sounding exhausted from the thirty or so minutes I have spent attempting to braid her hair, “Maybe you should ask some of your friends about how and what they do their hair.”

“I have already Olivia. None of them were helpful at all.” She said irritated, but her eyes fell downcast as if she was upset.

With a sigh I decided to just detangle her hair and put it in a simple bun. “Well what did they say?” I asked desperate for any type of advice like a dog begging for some table scraps, “Maybe it might be unimportant to you but it might be of some use to me.”

She was quite for some time and silence enveloped us, the only sounds that could be heard were the brush I was using combing her hair and the spray bottle. I started to hum her favorite song which slowly started to calm her down.

“My friends said that their moms braid their hair.” She whispered dejectedly, as I was humming the chorus.

“Hmmm well it seems like we’re back to the drawing board then.” I stated calmly, although I was anything but. The new “in thing” was braids and although I love that it was something practical this time it was hard to do the new complicated braiding techniques. I was so used to just putting my hair into a pony tail or bun so I didn’t know how to do complex hair dos. I wanted Lilith to be comfortable with who she was but, I know it was hard to see her friends showing off their impressive hair styles while not having on for herself.

The next day while I was in art class with my best friends Amy and Chloe I told them about my problem with my sister.

“Well that easy Olivia just practice on us. Hell Amy can do a fish braid decently,” Chloe said as if that was an obvious conclusion with a roll of her eyes, “So you can practice on our hair for a while but some of the easy ones first. You know like the French braid, then slowly get to the more advanced stuff. I mean when you get into sports you don’t just play a game, you have to practice and the you'll show how good you are.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise while I heard her volunteer to have her hair touched, ever since Chloe quit athletics she always had her hair down and straightened. She said that she missed having it down and it made her feel more dressed up. When she started athletics in middle school she used to just stick it in a ponytail since it was one less thing to worry about. She would always complain that they had such a small amount of time to get ready for practice. She even thold us that if they weren't ready on the field or court by the time the bell rung they had to run five miles for every minute they were late! Now that she has to freedom to do dress however she wants and do with her hair she dressed much more feminine than usual and that meant no braids, buns, or basketball shorts.

“Thank you so much!” I excitedly yelled at her, “Can we start now? Lilith would be so happy if I could actually put her hair up tomorrow morning.”

“Chill Olivia, just because you can start practicing does not mean that you’ll be able to do it automatically,” Chloe stated trying not to sound too pessimistic, “And yes, you can practice on my hair since its already down. Mr. Roberts won’t say since anything since were all almost done with our paintings.”

So, for the rest of the period Amy and I huddled around Chloe trying to teach me the basics of braiding hair. Although, I watched excessive amounts of YouTube videos it helped a lot more having Amy teach me. Her hands gracefully combed through Chloe’s dark brown hair and eloquently went through the motions multiple times to show me before I even got to practice. It was hypnotizing watching her do it. Her pale white hands in contrast to Chloe’s mahogany colored hair reminded me of the way cream first looks when you pour it into black coffee. Chloe was silent when Amy was fiddling with her hair but, when it was my turn she was anything but.

“Jesus Olivia if you keep pulling that hard I’ll get bald spots before we graduate,” Chloe howled for the umpteenth time.

“I’m sorry! It’s just that I can’t get it to stick like Amy did. It’s really loose and looks like it’s going to come apart the minute I let go of it,” I told her frustration slowly eating at me.

“I told you that you wouldn’t be able to just magically pick it up in an hour. We’ll keep practicing till you get the hang of it,” Chloe consoled me.

“I think we should wrap it up here. Class is about to be let out and I need to fix Chloe’s hair before we go,” Amy teased with a smirk on her face.

I sighed and nodded stepping away from Chloe before I could mess up anymore. In a matter of minutes Amy had Chloe’s hair fixed just like it did at the beginning of class. Amy must have seen me still pouting slightly because she moved over to me when she was done with Chloe.

“Stop being gloomy, we told you not to expect to be able to do much today. But knowing how stubborn you can be you’ll be a master in no time,” Amy said.

“I know I just want Lillith to fit in with the girls at school. I don’t want her to feel like she’s missing something because she doesn’t have a mom,” I confessed.

“Your such a good sister to her. Don’t worry I know she isn’t missing out because she has someone like you to look out for her,” Amy told me and pulled me into a hug.

When the bell rung Chloe looped her arms through me free one, “Come on lets’ get to class and I’ll buy some cookies for us to split during lunch.”

For the following week I was making progress and was excited to reveal Lilith my skills soon. I still did her hair in the morning but it was simple ponytails. Mr. Roberts was very excepting about me and my friends hair “lessons” but that was probably due to the fact that we were good in his class and were almost done with our assignment. I was very happy about having Amy and my teacher instead of Chloe since she was much more temperate than her. If Amy got frustrated then she did a great way of hiding it, she also was the one to bring my hot head down too. But that’s just how Amy is, which is why Chloe chose to be the one we practiced on rather than be the teacher.

_“Where are you guys???”_

Is what I texted my friends when they didn’t show up to art class today. I almost got the hang of French braids and if I could do it again with no help from Amy then I was going to surprise Lilith tomorrow morning.

My phone vibrated next to me informing me that one of them texted back. _“We’re so sorry! We completely forgot to tell you about the field trip to Williams Burg College. We won’t be at school today. But we can meet up at your house after school.”_ This is what they texted me back.

I was bummed out that I wouldn’t see them at lunch, but also because they didn’t tell me. Although, I’m not surprised since they have always been absent minded about field trips since I’ve know them. I was snapped out of my self-pity party when I heard the boys next to me being loud.

“Ugh! Charlie you need to cut your hair! If Coach sees how long it is he’ll bench you for the next game,” Marques, from the basketball team scolded.

“Dude, don’t you think I know that? One of my bands snapped and I can’t fix it! My brother is the one who fixes it but he wasn’t there this morning to re-braid them,” Charlie argued he looked distressed but them his head shot over to my table.

At that point I had been full on looking over at them but quickly looked down at my phone so it didn’t look like I was creeping on them. I wasn’t but they were so loud and I was curious like always. I opened my phone to text back my girls to tell them that meeting after school was good with me.

“Hey, Olivia! Can you come over here for a second?” Charlie called over to me.

I looked up at him face blushing slightly hoping that he wasn’t going to call me out on my snooping and asked, “What do you need Charlie?”

“Do you think you could fix my hair? You and Amy are always messing with Chloe’s’ and I need to fix it before my coach see it next period,” Charlie requested his voice pleading just a bit.

I walked over to his small group of friends, ”Umm I’m still learning so I might take a while, and it won’t be as nice as it usually is. I can just do French braids, so it’ll be small ones all throughout your hair. Is that ok?” I asked him nervously.

“Sure that’s fine. I just need it done by the end of class. Do you think you’ll be done by then?” He asked and got his small brush out of his backpack.

I took the brush and nodded not focusing on him but his hair. I started to take out the rest of him hair ties and brushed it out as gently as I could. Him and his friends talking began to slowly become background sounds to me. I took my time and began to part his hair into manageable pieces for me. It was harder to braid because his hairs shorter than Chloe’s but with some alterations I slowly got the hang of it.

“So how come Roberts’ lets you and your friends do whatever y’all want?” Marques; Charlies best friend, asked me.

I looked away from Charlie’s hair to him and then to their projects in front of them, “Because unlike you and half the table my group is almost done with our paintings. We just need to finish shading in a couple of places and then we’ll be done. None of you though have even started painting,” I countered back at him, I didn’t want them to get Mr. Roberts in trouble by them thinking he was playing favorites.

“Pfft whatever, we’ll be done by the time its due. We always do,” Marques said keeping eye contact with me almost like he was challenging me to say something.

I didn’t rise to the bait and looked down focusing on what I was doing, “Well I hope you do since its due in like a week and a half,” I retorted softly.

Marques eyes widened considerably at this news, “Wait are you serious? I thought I wasn’t due until like three weeks,” Marques cried.

“Nope, he keeps telling the class its due soon, and looks at this table. But I guess you didn’t understand the hint,” I told him sassily.

The group roared with laughter and Marques had the sense to look a little sheepish. They gave him a hard time for a little bit before they also set to work on their projects with a much more determined gusto than a couple moments ago. My hands were tangled through Charlies hair again when a different boy; Jesse, started to ask me questions.

“So, Olivia why did you suddenly want to braid?” he inquired innocently.

I was halfway done with Charlie’s hair and my hands tightened flexibly making him grimaced, “Oh I’m so sorry!” I whispered to him.

“It’s ok I’m not tender headed it just kinda surprised me,” he joked with a grin.

I nodded at him and looked at the dude who was talking to me, “Well at the elementary school braids are the in-thing right now, and I want to learn so my little sister can wear them to school,” I explained to him.

“Oh,” Jesse said, “Well what about your-”

“My moms been dead for a couple of years now,” I interrupted him since I knew what he was about to ask.

The table was silent for a little bit after that. Since I was caught off guard I had to restart with Charlie’s braid. I felt so bad about how harshly I handled the situation and it was making it hard for me to finish with his hair. And then Mr. Roberts saved us from the awkward position I had put us in.

“Well look what is going on here. You boys have finally started to make progress on your paintings. After weeks of me hounding it took Olivia less than half an hour for her to get you all to get the ball rolling,” Mr. Roberts ribbed at the group playfully.

They just looked at him and all shrugged their shoulders laughing good naturally. The tension slowly leaving us and we went back to the friendly atmosphere. In no time after that I was done with Charlie’s hair.

“There all done,” I reported to him and even I slightly marveled at the job I did. It certainly wasn’t as good as it had been at the beginning of the day but it was the best I’ve been able to do so far.

Charlie slowly stroked his hair to feel if there were any tuffs of hair sticking out. His buddies looked at the finished product and each gave their approval.

“Thanks Olivia!” Charlie exclaimed with a grin.

“Your welcome Charlie,” I replied back with a small smile of my own.

I started to head back to my seat when Marques surprisingly piped up, “Hey, why don’t you join us to make sure we keep on task?”

My eyes widened slightly, and I studied him for a second making sure that he wasn’t joking before I slowly nodded me head in response. I dragged my chair and other belongings before I set up next to Charlie.

“Wow we really are behind,” Riley, my other neighbor, retorted looking at his painting that had a few colors on his canvas but otherwise was basically white; compared to my almost finished one.

I snorted, “Well yall better hurry because according to Marques,” I nodded at his direction, “you guys always finish on time.”

Everyone laughed and we continued to do our work with some more playful jabs at each other. The class ended soon enough, and I was happy that I made some more friends although it wasn’t deep it felt nice to know that I could talk to them comfortably if I needed to.

The following Monday was when I decided to let Lilith know about my new talent. She usually was a zombie in the morning never really paying attention going on auto pilot while getting ready. Lilith was dressed and ready to go when she wordlessly handed me the brush. I took it with barley concealed excitement and began to work on her hair. I didn’t want to send her to school a boring French braid even though that was the one I was best at. No, instead I was attempting to go for the gold and do an elaborate side fish braid. Lilith didn’t even notice that I took longer than usual or the twisting motions that I was doing.

Once I was done, I took a moment to appreciate the fruit of my labor, “Ok Lilith go look and tell me what you think,” I ordered and gently pushed her off the bed and towards the mirror.

She begrudgingly went and when she was close enough stopped suddenly, my heartbeat sped up and nerves got the best of me. I started to doubt my abilities and was going to tell her to get back so I could redo her hair when she just as quickly broke out in a wide smile.

Lilith rushed back to me and wrapped me in a hug, “OMG I love it!” she squealed.

“I’m glad you like it,” I told her and then got my backpack, “Now come on we have to go before the bus get here.”

She followed me out the door and I told her all about my friends helping me as I locked the door and we walked to our bus stop. Lilith saw Chloe and Amy as we boarded on the bus. She also gave them her thanks for teaching me how to braid hair. I steered her towards her seat with her friends and then took my seat so we could get a move on. My shoulders lifted from the tension as I saw Lilith proudly show off her new hairdo. I knew all about being excluded from people by not fitting in what was ‘normal’ or ‘popular’ and I didn’t want that to happen to by baby sister. Seeing her so delighted made my day.

Even though Mondays were most certainly the worst day of the week it just kept getting better for me. I forgot to tell Chole and Amy about what happened when they were gone Friday. I mean it wasn’t that important, so I didn’t think to inform them. So what if I kinda got in with the jocks? It was a one-time thing and I thought they would ignore me next time we had class. I mean Charlie did give me a wave and smile anytime we made eye contact. But that didn’t mean anything, and he’s always been friendly! Or when Marques stopped to give me a high five in the hallway when we were going to class. It was just a high five not anything awe-inspiring! So, to say that Amy and Chole were bugging me to tell them what happened was an understatement. I finally cracked and told them about how I spent the period with them while they ‘ditched’ me to go tour some campus. Chole thought that I wasn’t telling the whole story and kept trying to get me to tell her every single detail. Amy agreed with her but was a lot calmer in her approach.

I was frazzled when art came around and somewhat anxious. I dropped off my bag at my seat and got to get my art supplies before returning to my chair. When I sat down Amy and Chole were already set even though I came to class earlier. They were talking about the math teacher than surprised their class with a pop quiz since they were behaving poorly. I gave them my sympathies when someone walked up to our table.

“Umm did yall want to join our table?” Charlie asked, once we all stopped talking and were staring at him.

Amy and Chole looked at me expecting an answer but I just shrugged my shoulder and then they looked back at each other and nodded.

“Will we all fit at one table?” Amy the sensible one asked.

Charlie blew out some air, “You know what? That’s a good question,” he looked at our group and his who were surprisingly looked at us with anticipation.

“We could push them together to make one giant table,” I spoke up.

“That’s a good idea!” Charlie said, “Hey Marques come over here and help me move the table together,” Charlie instructed his friend.

Marques and the guys got up and began to do as they were told. Me and my friends got our bags and gave the guys room to push the tables to join them. We reminded them to be careful so the paint wouldn’t get knocked over and soon everything was in place.

With all the commotion Mr. Roberts came to our spot, “What are you all doing?” he asked.

“Were just combining the tables so that we can all sit together Mr. Roberts,” I told him.

He stared at us for a couple of seconds, “Hmm well as long as everyone finishes the painting on time; and I mean it, I want it done an soon, I don’t any problems,” and he turned back around to go to his desk, “Oh and if you get too loud I will separate everyone into different corners of the room!”

I grinned at everyone, “Well we better get busy you boys have a lot of work to do. I don’t think Mr. Roberts wants anything mediocre turned in.”

We all sat down and I was again sitting next to Charlie. I tried to not look at and focus on my project because if I didn’t, I would be distracted all class long. Charlie did not get the memo though and nudged me till I finally looked at him.

“Yes,” I asked my eyes drifted from my painting to his smiling face.

“I’m glad you came over and sat with us,” was his surprising response he didn’t even seem embarrassed about it either.

I felt a blush dusting my face as I quickly began to work again refusing to look back at him again because I knew if I did my face would look like a strawberry.

“Me too,” I whispered back to him.

As I willed my face to return to its normal color, I couldn’t help but smile. I had a good feeling that it was going to be a good school year.


End file.
